Regarding the screening approach, Pap Smear has become the primary screening method of the country and early this year, Ministry of Public Health has launched the HPV Self Sampling Programme where all women, who feel shy to get examined by medical doctors or do not want to take leave from their job to take the test at the hospital, can follow the sampling collection instruction and send over their specimen to the participating hospitals. This initiative will increase the HPV screening coverage. If their test results are positive, they will get accessed to different treatment approaches from operation to chemotherapy and interventional radiotherapy as found appropriate and applicable to their symptoms and their health benefit package.
“In the meeting, the participants will also discuss about interventions and preparatory works which will be required to ensure the continuation of HPV and cervical cancer prevention program in the next pandemic. It is obvious that in past 2 years, COVID pandemic has interrupted the production and procurement of HPV vaccines, which has caused more than 800,000 grade-5 female students unable to get vaccinated. However, since the COVID situation is getting better, so far, we can get 400,000 target students vaccinated and are procuring more doses to cover the rest”, Dr. Somsak said.